


Part of Your World

by aerys



Category: Love Victor (TV 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Romance, Happy Ending, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Merpeople, Mythology References, Romance, Sirens, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-23
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:36:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 20,276
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27167365
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aerys/pseuds/aerys
Summary: Victor stumbles upon a stranger on the beach.(Venji Mermaid AU, loosely based on The Little Mermaid)
Relationships: Benjamin "Benji" Campbell & Victor Salazar, Benjamin "Benji" Campbell/Victor Salazar, Mia Brooks/Lake Meriwether
Comments: 44
Kudos: 16





	1. Poor Unfortunate Souls

**Author's Note:**

> “Why would you want to help me?” 
> 
> Their voice was weak and quiet as they stifled a soft whimper of pain. 
> 
> “All I see is someone who’s injured, and it’s my duty to help you. Merfolk, humans… at the end of the day, we aren’t all that different. I don’t have any reason to want to harm you. You haven’t done anything to me. And if it makes you feel any better, I’m unarmed.”
> 
> This response seemed to be satisfactory. The figure peered out from behind the rock with furrowed brows, and the man finally got a proper look at them. Pale skin, flushed cheeks with high cheekbones, plush lips that he found himself staring at for a moment longer than he should have. Too beautiful to be human.
> 
> “You can come closer.”

The waves crashed onto the rocky shoreline in the late morning, clouds hanging low and blanketing the sky in murky grey. As the wind whipped around, sharp and cold, the sea’s intensity increased, a metronomic repetition of wave, pull, crash, spray. Several seagulls squawked as they glided over the surface, circling before alighting atop the rocks that provided the most scenic and least dangerous view of the warring molecules of water, salt and trace elements below. The vicinity reeked of salt and brine and barnacles clinging to the rocks and the piers that reached out into the horizon.

Nestled between the rocks lay a figure, stirring as if jarred by the incessant haranguing of birds. With a groan, the figure slowly pushed up into a sitting position as they gripped their head, the dispersed light still strong in their vision. Blinking sand from their eyes, they glanced down to see the gentle lapping of water at their greenish brown tail. They released the breath they had been holding, relieved. Being away from the sea too long could be deadly.

Just as their head peeked up from between the rocks and their eyes adjusted to being on land, the figure caught sight of another approaching the shore. It was a young man with bronze skin and dark, wavy hair and a bit of facial hair, weathered but with kind brown eyes, who watched the figure curiously and quickened his pace. 

_No no no no._

As they turned to throw themself back into the sea, a sharp pain shot up their back, sending them back into the earth with a yelp. They reached around their back. Blood. And sand mixed together.

When the man neared, the figure snarled at him. 

“Stay the _fuck_ away!”

With hands raised in surrender, the man’s face paled. He glanced down at the bloody figure, eyes widening immediately at the huge gash that had been left diagonally from shoulder to hip. 

Then the figure moved. They darted away, not wanting to have their back exposed. Instead, they retreated behind one of the rocks, groaning again from the exertion. 

Stood in place, the man pressed his lips together in a line. He had caught sight of the figure, who had the upper half of a human man, with soft tousled brown hair, a beautiful face, and a chiseled body — but with the lower half of a fish. But he didn’t want to give this creature any more of a reason not to trust him. He clenched his jaw, knowing he looked exactly like whoever had inflicted the original injury.

“Please…” the man said gently, remaining in place, “I want to help you.”

For a moment silence hung in the air between them, with only the sound of the sea audible in the background.

“Leave me be,” the voice said from behind one of the rocks, colored a bit by an accent the man couldn’t quite place, “you’re just saying that so you can finish what your people started.”

“I’m not like them.”

“Prove it.”

Another hiss of pain filled the air, almost blending with the waves. 

“I can take you to my hut and sew up that gash for you. If you go into the water like that you’ll get infected. And sitting out here and rubbing it in sand isn’t going to help.”

Another silence. The man wondered if the figure had somehow managed to slip away while he had been talking. Then:

“Why would you want to help me?” 

Their voice was weak and quiet as they stifled a soft whimper of pain. 

“All I see is someone who’s injured, and it’s my duty to help you. Merfolk, humans… at the end of the day, we aren’t all that different. I don’t have any reason to want to harm you. You haven’t done anything to me. And if it makes you feel any better, I’m unarmed.”

This response seemed to be satisfactory. The figure peered out from behind the rock with furrowed brows, and the man finally got a proper look at them. Pale skin, flushed cheeks with high cheekbones, plush lips that he found himself staring at for a moment longer than he should have. Too beautiful to be human.

“You can come closer.”

The man’s gaze darted back and forth; no one would be out in this weather. He took a slow step, hesitating, before continuing across the craggy shore, boots crunching from the mixture of sand and rock beneath them. Crouching beside the rock at a respectful distance as the figure watched him over their shoulder, the man assessed the damage, keeping his hands to himself.

Upon closer inspection, he could see the deep gash that had cut through to the bone. Gritting his teeth, the man felt bile rising in his throat. He’d never understood the triumphant cheers of the fishermen who would frequent his restaurant and share stories of how many merfolk they’d killed or maimed over a round of pints. But he couldn’t speak up; it would be bad for business. Yet seeing it up close, the smell of iron carving through his alveoli, made him realize how wrong he had been to tolerate it.

“I can’t believe someone would do this to you,” the man muttered, blinking back the tears that had begun to form in his eyes.

Shrugging, the figure hissed upon realizing that such a movement separated the flesh that had been split open. Another gush of blood trickled out from the wound. “You said you would help me so… can you please do that before I… _ugh_ … bleed out…?”

“Yeah. Yeah, sorry.” 

Rising, the man set his gaze off in the opposite direction toward his hut, which wasn’t far. He saw some figures off in the distance milling about, and his pulse quickened. They didn’t have much time. If he ran, maybe he could manage. 

“Okay so… I’m gonna pick you up now,” the man said, hands floundering about as he tried to think of the most effective way to do so without touching the wound.

“Fine. Just… _please_ hurry up.”

Finally landing on a decision, the man knelt down again and picked up the other by the hips, draping them over his shoulder before rising and walking quickly to his hut as promised. 

“What should I call you?” 

“Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, my name’s Victor, if that’s something you care to know.”

“Mm, fine. I’m Benji,” the figure said before emitting a soft moan of pain again. “I kinda feel like a sack of potatoes.” _That’s what they’re called, right?_

“It would have been nice to meet under… different circumstances,” Victor said with a sad chuckle. “Anyway, here’s my place. Hopefully we can get you patched up and good as new.”

They neared Victor’s hut. He looked over his shoulder quickly before shoving it open and slipping inside. 

It was small, consisting of just one main room and a bathroom. The floor was made of stone and the exterior of wood. Within was a small bed pressed against the wall beside the door, with a furnace in the center radiating a pleasant warmth throughout the abode. The walls were lined with a couple of dressers and bookshelves joined together by strings that crossed the room with fruits and spices hanging from them and wafting a pleasant aroma throughout. A large window stood looking out into the sea, the heavy blue curtain pulled aside to allow the foggy light into the dimly lit area. 

“Sorry there’s not a whole lot of space,” Victor said, shutting the door behind him and locking it.

Mouth scrunching to the side, he looked for a spot to lay Benji down, realizing there was no other option aside from the bed.

“It looks cute from here,” Benji quipped, eyes roving about from where he hung upside down, arms dangling. Somehow the position made things a bit more bearable as his wound pressed together.

Victor scratched the back of his head sheepishly. “Thanks, I guess… Is it okay if I set you down here?”

“I don’t have much of a choice,” Benji replied with a roll of his eyes.

Humming, Victor gently unlatched the other from his shoulder, placing him on top of his sheets stomach-first. Benji’s hands balled into fists, nails digging into the heels of his hands as he bit his lip in an attempt to distract himself from the pain. Victor sighed, wiping his brow with the back of his arm, pacing for a moment before remembering where he had stowed his first aid supplies.

Benji could feel himself drying from the inside. He’d never been this far inland before, this far from the salty, life-giving nectar of the sea. His colony, which had inhabited the waters off the coast of the island for times immemorial, had always warned of the dangers of approaching the land. He’d lost friends at the hands of men who looked like Victor, finding their slashed up corpses littering the shores like bloody puzzles of fish and seaweed, no longer reminiscent of anything that had ever been alive. 

He needed the sea. And if Victor didn’t hurry, he would be operating on a husk. 

Returning with his tools in tow, Victor set them down as he sat beside Benji, leaving a bit of room between them as he peeled his jacket off him. He didn’t want to overwhelm this beautiful stranger more than he already had. Benji’s breathing became more labored quickly, skin becoming pale and clammy, and Victor paused, concerned. He’d only gone away for a few seconds.

“Water…” Benji croaked, lip quivering, eyes shut tight. “I need… water…”

“ _O-oh_ … Okay, one sec…”

Victor stumbled from the bed, running to the kettle where he had left some boiled water earlier.

“No… From the sea…” 

Realization dawned on Victor as he set the kettle back down. He glanced around the room for the bucket he used for carrying water, spinning around for a moment before spotting it beside one of his bookcases. He didn’t even bother to put his jacket back on as he bolted out the door to the water, dunking the bucket into it and filling it to the brim, sloshing it all over his boots in the process. More people had come out now, and he figured he looked suspicious running, so he slowed his pace, making it look like he was simply out for his normal stroll to gather his water to boil and drink later on.

When he returned, locking the door behind him once more and drawing the curtains, he saw Benji curled up, shaking as if afflicted with the cold, his voice quiet. Victor set the bucket down on the floor beside the bed, gently moving the end of Benji’s tail to submerge it in the water. For a moment, nothing happened.

And then, like a wildflower placed in a vase, its petals opening up, full of life and regaining its color, the pallor drained from Benji’s face and the flush returned, his breathing back to normal. But that was only half the battle. Victor sat back down, brushing away some of the hair that had fallen into Benji’s face and clung to his sweat-soaked brow, as if my instinct. He sighed, opening one of the bags he had brought with him before.

He withdrew a salve for disinfecting, along with some surgical needles and thread, scissors, rubbing alcohol, gauze, anesthetic, bandages, painkillers, and a pair of vinyl gloves. It had been a while since he had to stitch someone up, but he knew what to do. He put on his gloves, sighing at the work he would have cut out for him,

“This is gonna sting,” Victor said gently, pouring some alcohol on a sizeable piece of gauze. “I’ll try to give you some local anesthesia, though, so the stitching doesn’t hurt.”

“Thanks,” Benji murmured in response, tail twitching in the bucket as he glanced at Victor from the side. 

Benji bit his lip as Victor cleaned the wound thoroughly before applying the topical anesthesia liberally, his body relaxing as the pain began to recede. He watched Victor rise from the bed for a moment before sticking the surgical needle into the furnace for a moment before returning and beginning to stitch him up, lips slightly parted and eyes downcast as he focused on his work, oblivious to Benji’s eyes on him. Perhaps humans weren’t as bad as he thought. Or at least, not all of them. Or maybe just not this one in particular.

When he had finished putting in the many necessary stitches, Victor applied the salve to the now closed wound and wrapped a clean bandage over it, smoothing it down and exhaling loudly. He gave Benji some painkillers for good measure, too. Finally, he could rest. 

Victor rose from his spot on the bed, stretching before collecting his tools and returning them to the bag, which he then stowed back in the dresser across the room. He returned to see Benji staring up at him while lying on his side, making a point of leaving space for him as he patted the top of the sheets with his hand.

“Thank you again,” Benji sighed as Victor shoved his hands in his pockets and stood with his knees pressed against the bed, face tinged pink. “Sorry I was so rude to you earlier.”

Gaze softening as he glanced to the window, which he’d covered earlier, Victor sidled beside Benji on the bed, moving a bit closer than earlier but still leaving a bit of room for Jesus between them. There was something mesmerizing about Benji’s eyes, the way his hazel ringed pupils that looked like lines instead of circles seemed to pierce through him.

“It’s okay. I know my kind haven’t been very good to you.”

“To be fair… We do have a tendency to try and lure you to sea with songs and drown you…”

“I’ve seen all the bodies of the merfolk that have been killed… If anyone’s the monster, it’s us,” Victor acknowledged, reaching out his hand to brush the lock of hair that had fallen into Benji’s face again, stopping mid-motion once he became aware of what he was doing. “My point is, you were right not to trust me. But I’m glad you did, in the end.”

“I don’t think anyone else would have helped me,” Benji replied, gaze darting to Victor’s hand, voice tinged with bitterness as he wrapped his arm over his shoulder. “I don’t even remember who did this to me, either.”

Victor lay down fully beside Benji on his shoulder, propping himself up on his arm. Benji’s tail splashed about in the bucket, the only other sound aside from the crackle of the furnace and the harmony of their breathing. For a moment, Victor forgot what it meant to sin. He cleared his throat.

“It’s a cowardly thing to do, to attack someone when their back is turned. Looked like someone was wielding a pretty heavy weapon, too. If it went any deeper your spine would probably have… Nevermind.”

Benji swallowed. He didn’t want to talk about this anymore. Raising his hand to Victor’s face, he let his palm rest on the other’s cheek. Victor flinched, almost falling off the edge of the bed when he pulled away, heart threatening to leap from his chest and splatter against the wall in a burst of blood and tissue. Benji felt the ghost of a smile playing at his lips.

“Why are you humans so strange when it comes to physical affection?” 

“If you’re looking to repay me or something, you don’t have to do that…” Victor said, voice strained. “It’s… frowned upon here.”

“Well, no one will see. And you can’t tell me you don’t prefer the company of other men. Don’t worry, I won’t tell anyone,” Benji mused, his smirk exposing his pointed canines.

“No, I--”

“I guess I just don’t believe you when you said you wanted to help me because it was the right thing to do.”

Opening his mouth and closing it again, Victor rose from the bed and poured himself a glass of water before downing it. 

“Do you want a drink?”

“No, I’m fine,” Benji waved him off. “But anyway. You seem like a good person. But not _that_ good. So tell me, Victor. Because I’ll admit it, I won’t drag you underwater and try to drown you because you saved my life. _And_ I’ll make sure all the other merfolk know you’re off limits.”

“That’s… actually kinda sweet?” Victor said, raising an eyebrow. “Fine. You caught me. I guess I just make excuses about being too busy to find a wife and settle down so people don’t give me problems about it. It’s easier to just… be alone.”

“Yes! I knew it,” Benji said, raising a fist for a moment before realizing what he had been doing. “Sorry. Humans are just so… backwards in a lot of ways.”

It was Victor’s turn to raise his eyebrow and give Benji an incredulous look. “So… the merfolk are all right with that sort of thing?”

“Of course.”

Outside, the wind began to pick up, howling against the hut and the lighthouse outside, a crack of thunder shaking the ground. Victor shuffled over to the curtain and pulled it aside, watching the black cloud above marching toward them like a legion of soldiers prepared to knock down any structures in their path. 

“Wait… I think I remember a bit now,” Benji said, wincing as he sat up. 

His mind went back to a few hours ago, when he had broken the surface of the water with his friend Mia. They had decided to explore the area because as with anything that was off-limits, the temptation was too much for them to resist. Of course they’d heard the stories about merfolk who had been plucked from the waves, never to return. But it was a quiet day, with no boats out on the water, and few people about, so the risk was low. 

Benji had suggested visiting the southern part of the island where years ago, a ship had collided with the rocks during a storm, leaving behind a wreck containing untold riches. At least, that was the legend. Its location wasn’t easily accessible by those who inhabited the island, as it required one to climb down a steep drop, so anyone with a tail and the ability to breathe underwater would have no trouble getting inside. 

They had explored the ship for a bit, picking up as much loot as they could and stashing it in their seaweed-woven knapsacks. Silverware, coins, foil, paperclips -- basically anything shiny they could get their hands on went into their bags. They knew they would get _so_ many shells in exchange. Once they got as much as they could carry, bags overflowing, Benji told Mia he would meet up with her in a moment, and so she dove beneath the surface again with a wave. Benji exhaled, surveying the beauty of the cliffs and taking a mental photo of them for later.

And that was when he saw him: Victor, on his morning hike, as Benji watched him silently from below, ducking down so that only his eyes showed from above the dark water. Victor approached the edge of the cliff, closing his eyes as he inhaled the sea air for a moment, before he traipsed back inland, the sun seeming to illuminate him from all sides. 

Benji kept his gaze trained on him as he maneuvered around the wreckage and swam toward him, doing his best to keep himself unnoticed and inconspicuous. As he rounded the jagged corner of the cliffs, approaching the flatter part of the rocky beach, Benji found himself paying less and less attention to his surroundings. He just wanted to get clo--

A loud _thwack_ from behind, and everything went black.

“I didn’t see who did it to me because I was too busy following you,” Benji admitted, scratching the back of his head and averting his gaze. 

Covering his face in his hands, Victor sighed. “Then you’re _really_ lucky I found you. And even luckier that they seemed to have gotten careless because their kill rate is basically 100%.”

Blood caught in the middle of his veins like it had been exposed to absolute zero, the subatomic particles holding in place instead of bouncing around at light speed, Benji’s eyes widened. He’d gotten close, but _..._

“What about _Mia_?”

“Hey, hey. _Stop.”_ Victor said, holding Benji in place to stop him from getting up and reopening his wounds. “Your friend is probably fine if she left before you. And you can’t go anywhere in this state.”

Swallowing, Benji lay back down, tail resting back in the bucket after he had splashed everywhere. “I won’t be able to sleep if I don’t know that she’s okay. I’ll probably heal in a day or two but who knows what’ll happen in that time...”

Victor pressed his lips together, allowing himself to rest his warm palm on Benji’s cheek as he looked him directly in the eyes, before saying: “She’s okay. And she’s probably looking for you as we speak.”

Benji seemed to relax at this, letting his eyelids fall closed as he sighed. “I’m too tired to argue with you.”

“Well, you don’t have to,” Victor said, walking to the other side of the room and crouching over a spot on the floor behind the furnace. He lifted a large piece of stone, exposing a sizeable pit in the ground. “What do merfolk eat, aside from people?”

Rolling his eyes, Benji smiled. “That’s just a myth. We mostly just forage for plants but sometimes if we get a hankering for snails or jellyfish…”

Making a face, Victor removed some wrapped packages from the pit. “I don’t like the texture of snails… But I’ve got some uhh… cured meat and dried mushrooms and stuff. I’ll make us some soup. I’ll tell the restaurant I won’t be available for the next few days.”

Raising both his eyebrows, Benji shifted his position on the bed, lying on his stomach with a pillow under his arms so he could face Victor and watch him as he set a pot on top of the furnace and put all the ingredients inside with some water to boil. It wasn’t a long process, and soon, after a few minutes of chatting, their dinner was ready. Victor was grateful that he had another bowl so he wouldn’t make a fool of himself. He waited for Benji to sit up before passing the bowl to him and watching him scarf down its contents, a small smile on his face.

The storm outside continued in full-force as they sat inside the warmth of the hut, enjoying each other’s company. Benji hadn’t expected Victor to take time off just for his sake, but he was grateful not to sit inside a strange house alone as he healed. 

Soon night fell, and the inevitable problem of sleeping arrangements arose. Victor gulped at the prospect of sharing his tiny bed with another man… half-fish, half-man, _whatever_. He opened one of his dressers and pulled out another set of sheets and placed them atop the carpeted area beside the bed, making himself a nest. Benji quirked an eyebrow.

“You’re not seriously sleeping on the floor.”

“There’s uh... not enough room on the bed for us both. Plus, I move around a lot, I don’t want to kick you off by accident.”

“Okay, as the person whose life you saved, I want to repay you… by using my body heat to keep you warm at night,” Benji replied as-a-matter-of-factly with a smirk. “And there’s actually plenty of room if you’re not a pussy.”

Victor’s eyes widened as he looked from the pathetic pile of blankets on the floor to his soft, inviting bed, inhabited by a very sexy merman (although Victor would never admit it aloud). He knew no number of layers between him and the stone floor would protect him from the cold of the storm raging outside. After pulling the curtains closed, Victor followed the light from the furnace to his bed, kicking his shoes off before slowly sliding under the covers.

“Fine. But no funny business,” Victor said finally, resenting the implication that he was somehow _scared_. 

They lay beside each other, Benji closing the gap between them as he pressed his chest up against the side of Victor’s arm, propping himself up on his elbow as he stared down at him in the dark. Victor turned his face toward the figure outlined faintly as his eyes adjusted. His heart banged like a pair of cymbals in his ears as he closed his eyes.

The days passed quickly, and, sure enough, Benji healed as expected. Victor marveled at how quickly the skin had fused to itself, leaving behind nothing but a faint, raised line where a bony gash had been before. Benji didn’t want to waste any more time.

It was a sunny day, and as expected, anyone who could had left their huts for the morning for a stroll. There wasn’t much else to do around there, really. And so Victor had to be creative as the synapses in his brain built puzzles with his thoughts while he tried to figure out a way to sneak Benji out of his hut without risking their lives or arousing suspicions. They could either wait until nightfall, or Victor could simply sprint across the short distance between his hut and the water. Neither option was particularly amenable, but they opted for the latter due to time constraints. But luckily, Victor’s hut sat in a fairly secluded location close to the shore; if he was quick, he could manage.

Benji had only stayed with him for a short time, and yet, Victor knew his hut would be cold and quiet without his presence. A pang clutched at his insides as he thought about what it would be like to never see him again. He didn’t want that to be the case. But he couldn’t form the words to ask when he would see Benji again, if at all.

Victor peered outside, taking note of the path between his hut and the lighthouse, a walk of no more than a hundred feet. For now, the coast was clear.

Lifting Benji in his arms and allowing him to wrap his tail around the other’s back, Victor opened the door and ran as fast as his legs would carry him to the water. The salty wind collided with his face as he counted down the seconds.

_3, 2, 1…_

He knelt on one knee and deposited Benji into the waves, heart sinking as he watched him disappear beneath the surface.

For a moment he simply stayed like that, hands resting before him on the rocks, gazing off into the horizon, finally alone, innards hollow.

A second later, a head popped out from the water, a familiar face gazing back at him.

“I’ll come see you again.”

Benji kissed his hand. And then he was gone.

The spot where Benji had kissed him lingered even hours after the sun had set.


	2. Fathoms Below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji returns home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, poor little prince,” Lake said, imitating crying with her fists balled up in front of her cheeks, “it must be so _hard_ having people waiting on you hand and tail. I would just _die_ if that happened to me.”
> 
> Benji glared at her, grabbing the nearest item -- a shiny green shell bustier -- and throwing it at her, which she dodged gracefully. 
> 
> “Okay, _enough_ , you two. If we’re not down in the great hall in the next… five minutes, they’ll probably think you’re _actually_ dead this time,” Mia interrupted them, a tear in her eye floating into the water, as she rose and offered her hands to Lake and Benji respectively. “But I’m really glad you came back for me.”
> 
> “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you weren’t okay,” Benji said, before adding reluctantly: “All right, let’s do this thing, I guess.”

Benji dove down into the inky depths of the sea, the familiar weight of the water engulfing him and wrapping him up like a cozy sweater. He circled a few times before descending farther, his strong tail propelling him forward. As his eyes readjusted to being below the surface and his lungs reacclimated to extracting oxygen from the water and not the air, he began to feel more and more like himself. Finally, free and able to move about on his own. 

His thoughts floated back to Victor, the man’s kind and beautiful face etched into the slate of his mind, and he allowed himself that one memory, allowing the rest to dissipate piece by piece with each foot he descended. Soon, the light from above disappeared, replaced by the glow of passing anglerfish and jellyfish emitting their own colorful bioluminescence. He watched them drift by for a moment, minding his own business and allowing them to mind theirs, too, before continuing his descent to the seafloor, where he began to wade through a thicket of seaweed. 

From somewhere out in the distance, he heard the low hums of whales having a conversation with contents he wasn’t privy to. In another direction, the one in which he was headed, in fact, he heard an uncountable number of voices chattering like a cacophony mixed with the eerie melody of mourning songs that were so loud they would threaten to alert the humans above. Another death. He hoped it had been for him.

He wasn’t the only one returning home, he realized. It was unusual for so many members of the colony to be out this close to mealtime. Raising an eyebrow, Benji kicked his tail faster so it matched the rhythm of his heart, as he raced toward the gaping cavern that drew hundreds and thousands of merfolk to it. He savored the last moments he would have of peace as he approached, joining the crowds as they filtered into the cave.

Their palace was built into a rock face with only the great hall on the first level open, the rest accessible only via tunnels illuminated by bioluminescent coral. Within the walls stood columns of marble of all shades taken and repurposed from the humans who had attempted and failed to infiltrate their peaceful habitance. Among the columns, coral older than the cave itself grew from every surface, with fish of all hues dancing and darting about among the merfolk. 

As soon as Benji entered the hall, the chatter and harmonizing fell to a hush, snuffed out like a covered flame. Every eye in the palace stuck to him, jellyfish tentacles serving as stinging reminders of his place. He sighed. The silence broke again with whispered chants of his name circling around him. 

_“Prince Benjamin is alive.”_

Benji’s ears perked up at the name that pulled dread into the pit of his stomach. In an instant, hundreds of bodies embraced him, almost suffocating him as they cheered and emitted a huge cloud of bubbles that rose to the ceiling of the cavern. He cringed at the sensation, wriggling away as quickly as he could. There was no time; he had to find Mia. 

Allowing his brain to do several revolutions as he dug into his memories, Benji tried to connect the dots. He glanced over his shoulder as he dove into the nearest tunnel, the map of the palace burned into the backs of his eyelids as his body moved without consulting it. 

The library, the gardens, the fish nursery, the seahorse stables, the grotto, her chambers… all potential places where Mia could be, and all at entirely different points on the map. Benji swam faster, continuing to look over his shoulder to ensure he would lose whoever he knew would be expecting his attendance to make a decision about something banal like what color seaweed to plant in the gardens next season or how to seat the guests at their next ball. It was always the same -- blue and “For the last time, I don’t give a shit as long as I’m in a spot where I can slip out and leave when I get bored without my father making a fuss about how I’m embarrassing him.”

He’d ended up in the aristocratic wing of the palace, deep within the earth and, for now, unfollowed. Continuing down the corridor, he came to the round sandstone door he’d passed through countless times, the soft whimpers from within indicating that he’d made the right choice. He knocked gently, exhaling relief; the crying ceased.

“Go away,” came a muffled voice.

“Mia… It’s me. I’m so glad you’re alive.”

Scrambling from the opposite side of the door accompanied the realization. The door swung open and a small, black and curly-haired, brown-skinned mermaid wearing a white shell bra latched onto his neck, squeezing the water from his cells and making him forget his place. To her, he was just Benji.

“Oh my pearls, Benji, don’t worry about me. I thought they turned _you_ into sushi,” Mia said when she pulled away from him, hands resting on both his cheeks as she stared at his furrowed face with her own as their tears mingled with the water around them. “When you didn’t follow me I came back up to look for you and I… I couldn’t find you and I thought they’d nicked you and--”

“No, no. They definitely tried. But I just got a cool scar out of it. Look,” Benji said, turning around and motioning toward the line on his back. “I’m honestly fine otherwise. Sorry I worried you, though. I wish I had come sooner but I had to recover. But I was so worried the whole time that you’d gotten killed because of me...”

Mia took him by the hand and led him into her chamber, locking the door behind them and muttering a silencing enchantment under her breath so they could have more privacy. They didn’t know who could be lurking and wanting to listen. 

Her chamber, like the others within the palace, was round and small, large enough for a bed and some furniture to ring the walls -- a pearl and driftwood wardrobe, a rusted metal desk scavenged from a wreck, a sofa she’d built herself from parts she collected and weaved together into something that didn’t look homemade. At the center of the room lay a carpet that was actually an anemone with fish hidden within. 

They sat down on Mia’s bed, hands still clasped together, the end of Mia’s dark purple and brown tail swatting against Benji’s green and brown one, their intertwined tails kicking up some of the sand from the floor.

“Do you know who did that to you?” Mia asked gently, glancing down at Benji’s hands and then back up at his face. “How did you survive?”

“I… don’t know. But apparently the humans are getting careless. Arrogant,” Benji sighed, thoughts turning back to Victor’s warm brown eyes staring down at him. “But one of them saved me. He’s not like the others. And I promised him that I’d make sure none of the merfolk touch him. I owe him my life.”

Eyebrows bouncing into her hairline, Mia released his hand, sliding back and studying Benji. “How do you know he wasn’t just trying to lure you in and earn your trust before he killed you and cooked you to feed to his children?”

Benji could feel his face heat up. “Oh, please, the guy couldn’t even hurt a plankton. And if he wanted to, he could have just sliced my head off while I was lying on the beach bleeding out.”

Pursing her lips, Mia squinted her eyes, suspicious. “Tell me about him.”

Rolling his eyes, Benji recounted the story of how Victor had found him, how Benji had surrendered to him due to the pain more than anything else. All the other humans had taken it upon themselves to stay on the offensive, to act first, to _kill_. He could always see it in their eyes; the angry, devilish red that would reach out from their hearts through the rest of their bodies, like hellfire. Pure, unencumbered _hatred_ , the desire to snuff the life out of something that had done nothing more to them than exist a bit too close. What he saw in Victor’s eyes had been loneliness, an island in the middle of the sea whose only company were the waves that lapped at the shore. He had kept his distance because he understood that the only way to earn Benji’s trust was to let him see his eyes from afar. They were warm and brown and they stayed that way even up close.

When he finished his story, Mia tapped her chin with a glint in her eye, lip curling up ever so slightly. “Oh… my… pearls… You’re in love with him.”

Making a face, Benji stared at her, cheeks red like the clay from beneath the ground, unmoving and unblinking for a full minute. He genuinely didn’t even know how to reply. 

“I’m not gonna dignify that with a response.”

“Well, you don’t have to, because your face is telling me everything I need to know.”

Slumping forward, Benji rubbed his face with his hand. “I can’t love someone I only spent two days with. You’re ridiculous.”

“You clearly have _some_ sort of feelings for him. Look at you. People don’t blush over random strangers.”

Benji wanted nothing more than to tear the hair from his follicles at that moment. And he hated worst of all that he couldn’t lie to save his life. 

“We’re not having this conversation,” Benji said instead, licking his teeth as he stared at his cuticles. 

“Could you at least show me what he looks like? I need to know.”

“Fine. If I do, you better stop saying I’m in love with him, got it?”

“Of course, _my prince_ ,” Mia teased as she passed over a stack of cured and lightened seaweed and a pen full of squid ink, earning a light smack on the arm from Benji before he took the items and obliged her.

In a few minutes he had a full sketch, Victor’s face staring back at them with photographic realism thanks to Benji’s own talents coupled with his eidetic memory. 

“Ohh… I see why you like him, now,” Mia marveled, shaking her head, “he’s lovely. Maybe if I wasn’t with Lake and you were out of the picture I would poach him for myself.”

Knocking her in the shoulder with his own, Benji set the drawing down on the desk. “Well, too bad, he’s definitely not into… the female members of any species.”

“Probably the only thing you two have in common,” Mia retorted, glancing at him from the corner of her eye.

Opening his mouth and then closing it right away, Benji thought back to the days he had spent with Victor and what they had spoken about. It had started off intellectual enough, a lot on the topic of the politics around the humans and merfolk, then learning about each other, Benji learning about the island, and Victor about the underwater domain. It had eventually devolved into Benji pointing out objects, many of which had their Mermish names -- although some without -- and Victor giving the human equivalent. “Dinglehopper” became “fork”, and Benji couldn’t stop giggling each time he said “Could you pass me a _fork_ , please?” 

But Benji would never tire of hearing Victor’s gentle voice, the way the air slid between his teeth before it caressed Benji’s ear when he said his name in that way he wasn’t quite sure if it was real or imagined, the softness reserved, he hoped, for him alone. It would do him no good to idealize, though. Perhaps it was simply wishful thinking. Perhaps if he had played the part of the dutiful son and not gone seeking danger, he wouldn’t have gotten into this mess. But then, he wouldn’t have met Victor, either. He wasn’t sure if he valued his own life more or less to make the assessment that the risk had been worth it. And perhaps he had also imagined the way Victor’s eyes filled with light and life again, two pools awakening from emptiness by the water of the words “I’ll come see you again.”

Two days wasn’t enough to know much of anything; but Benji wasn’t foolish enough to believe that the connection had been anything other than genuine. And he knew that all he wanted was to learn more, to _know_ more, about Victor. That was the one thing he was certain about. 

“So you would _actually_ be supportive?” Benji asked.

“Yeah, obviously. I’m not gonna write someone off just because they come from a species that’s 99% garbage. Okay, wait, maybe that’s an exaggeration. Like, 80%. Or 85%. My point is, if you think about it, interspecies relationships are the reason we exist--”

“Okay… we don’t need to talk about the guy who fucked a fish. I unfortunately paid attention in history class.”

A knock on the door jolted them from the conversation, and Benji was secretly thankful for that, because he was _not_ looking forward to it in the slightest. He said a quick prayer to the crab gods as a blonde haired young mermaid peered in, eyes widening instantly as she slammed the door behind her and all but torpedoed into Benji, knocking him backward as she hugged him.

“Benji! I can’t believe you’re alive!”

“Oh, yeah… Cool… Can you please get your nipples away from me? Thanks.”

“No ‘Hi, Lake, good to see you again, I missed you, so sorry for worrying you like that’? Nothing? And to think I was _actually_ sad that you were gone…” Lake teased, taking a seat beside Mia on the bed and draping an arm over her shoulder, her red and brown tail brushing against Mia’s before twirling around it like a vine.

“Sorry, your nipples are just like… _really_ pointy and it’s kinda scary.”

“Well, then just pretend they’re not there, dork.”

Mia rolled her eyes as she wrapped an arm around Lake’s waist before taking her by the chin and kissing her softly on the lips. “Babe, relax. He was just telling me what happened.”

“About that… So, I was supposed to tell you two that we have to get ready for a ball in honor of the prodigal son’s return from the dead. It starts in thirty minutes,” Lake said as she motioned to Benji. 

With a heavy sigh, Benji rubbed his temples. Of course. “Ugh, that means I have to pick an _outfit_.”

“We can help. And I wanna hear _all_ about what you got up to these past few days. Spill the grapes, as the humans would say. Or was it beans? Or… tea? No, that can’t be right…” Lake said as Mia rose and offered her hands to her girlfriend to help her up.

Before they left, Mia quickly grabbed a handful of tops from her wardrobe to try on in Benji’s chamber, while Lake teased her for constantly wearing a bra. Either option was socially acceptable in Mermish society, but Mia found it to be too cold at this time of year to go without.

They swam down the corridor almost to the end, the green coral illuminating the space and casting an eerie yet peaceful glow. Benji pushed the door open, floating aside to allow Lake and Mia to enter. 

The chamber was only a bit larger than Mia’s, in the standard round shape, but also with a small window over the bed at the back wall overlooking the gardens. Where Mia’s had been neat and organized, Benji’s had instruments and gadgets, both Mermish and human alike, littering the surfaces of his bed and the desk that stood opposite, with some even hung on the walls. There were even some books, whose contents had been waterlogged and faded, written in a language none of them could understand in its written format. He’d even managed to loot some paintings, mostly portraits and images of flowers, that he proudly displayed in their now eroded wooden frames on the wall behind his bed. Beside the bed was Benji’s closet, which he was a bit embarrassed to say was overflowing with garments, most of which he’d only worn once if at all.

“As usual, your room looks like a junkyard,” Lake quipped, setting her hands on her hips. 

“I didn’t get a chance to clean before… you know,” Benji said, before launching into the explanation of events that he’d shared with Mia previously as he opened his closet and began removing a variety of shell bras and bustiers and setting them out on the bed beside Lake.

“Too bad I wasn’t there, it would have been so cool to be able to see what it’s like living among the big bad humans,” Lake mused, rising from her spot on the bed and maneuvering over to where Benji had stashed some shiny jewelry, nabbing a long necklace with emeralds on it and putting it on, letting it cascade over her bare breasts. “I’m borrowing this, by the way.”

“It would have been really boring if I didn’t have company,” Benji replied, slipping into a pink shell bustier that cinched his waist as he looked in the mirror. “What do you think of this?”

“Benji, you already have a tiny waist, no need to make us all even more jealous,” Lake said as she eyed him.

“What Lake is _trying_ to say is that it might be good to wear something you can actually breathe in,” Mia said, turning with her back to Lake so the other could tie the ribbon of her gold shell bra.

“Hmm… good point. And we know I’m gonna be anxious as shell because knowing my father, he’ll try to bring up the whole marriage thing _again,_ ” Benji sighed, tossing the bustier aside and picking up two orange starfish and attaching them to his chest. “Ow. Never mind.”

He removed them, wincing, and placed them aside, grabbing a rainbow shell bra instead. 

“Ironic that he’s cool with same gender relationships when it’s not one involving his own son, isn’t it,” Mia said.

“Don’t you know how important it is to ‘preserve the family name’, Mia? Come on,” Lake said, making water finger quotes where appropriate. 

Benji tied the back of his shell bra and examined himself in the mirror. “What do you think? Is this too much? I feel like it’s too much.”

“Absolutely.”

“No way.”

Lake and Mia replied simultaneously, before their heads snapped to the sides and they stared at each other.

“I feel like my eyes are being attacked,” Mia said as she held up her hands dramatically to act as a shield.

“Well _I_ think it looks stunning,” Lake said, “Very H2O.”

“Like, _water_?”

“No, like the _show_.”

“Lake, no one understands your references.”

“Hey, it was _huge_ , okay? Just because you didn’t hear about it doesn’t mean it wasn’t cool.”

“Right…”

Mia rolled her eyes, pressing another kiss to Lake’s lips. 

“I guess I’ll just wear this. I don’t feel like going through my whole closet,” Benji said, sitting down beside Lake on the bed.

“Good choice. Your titties look on point,” Lake remarked, earning a smack on the arm from Mia. “It just screams ‘spoil me’. And I’m sure Victor would love it, too.”

“Thanks, I guess… But yeah, you would think that once I became an adult I would have more autonomy but _no_ , it’s still the same shit…” Benji groaned, face red as he plopped back on his bed and shoved the heels of his hands into his eye sockets. “Makes me wish the monarchy just… didn’t exist. It doesn’t serve any useful purpose anymore. The only reason I even came back was so make sure you were okay, Mia.”

“Oh, poor little prince,” Lake said, imitating crying with her fists balled up in front of her cheeks, “it must be so _hard_ having people waiting on you hand and tail. I would just _die_ if that happened to me.”

Benji glared at her, grabbing the nearest item -- a shiny green shell bustier -- and throwing it at her, which she dodged gracefully. 

“Okay, _enough_ , you two. If we’re not down in the great hall in the next… five minutes, they’ll probably think you’re _actually_ dead this time,” Mia interrupted them, a tear in her eye floating into the water, as she rose and offered her hands to Lake and Benji respectively. “But I’m really glad you came back for me.”

“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if you weren’t okay,” Benji said, before adding reluctantly: “All right, let’s do this thing, I guess.”

They swam through the labyrinthine tunnels back to the great hall. When they arrived, the hall had been transformed from when Benji had seen it earlier, now adorned with anemones of various shades arranged like flowers in wreaths and bouquets. A massive sandstone banquet table stood overlooking the chasm below, and several guests had already taken their places. Atop the table lay dishes made from foraged ingredients -- salads made from seaweeds of many varieties, algae, sea cactus, the works, along with caviar from the fish that had agreed to share their surplus eggs, and small portions of snail and jellyfish for the more carnivorous guests. They generally tried to avoid eating anything sentient, but they also had to make do with what was available, and one could not subsist on weeds alone.

Benji took his spot just to the right of the head of the table, where his mother used to sit before she had succumbed to the same fate that had almost befallen him.

“Hello, _father_.”

“Benjamin,” his father, the white-bearded King Triton, said, pulling him into an embrace and kissing him on the cheek. “I was worried sick about you these past few days. Good to see you alive and well.”

“Alive, yeah. But well… that’s debatable,” Benji said, wiping the spot where he had been kissed with the back of his hand and making a face. “I only came back for Mia.”

The king furrowed his brow, concerned. “We looked everywhere for you. Where did you go?”

“I washed up on the shore of the island… And a human took care of me,” Benji said, averting his gaze to the hundreds of merfolk who had gathered around the table, dining and chattering. “ _He_ didn’t give me shit for being a prince and not wanting to just marry and have kids and all the other nonsense you want me to do.” _Maybe because I hadn’t told him…_ he added in his mind, but he wouldn’t say it aloud.

King Triton bristled. “He could have _killed_ you; have I taught you _nothing_?”

Taking a bite of seaweed and staring off across the cavern, Benji chewed slowly before swallowing. “I know, but he didn’t. He returned me good as new. So there.”

“You were always so irresponsible…” King Triton said with a sigh, “And you know I love you and accept you as you are, but for the good of the realm--”

“If I have to hear about the ‘good of the realm’ one more time, I’m going to lose my pearls,” Benji almost shouted, drawing the attention of Mia and Lake and the others who sat near them at the table. “I’m done here.”

Rising from his seat, Benji stormed away, or at least, as much as one could storm while underwater; he retreated through the back entrance, not bothering to be subtle when he darted through the hanging fronds of seaweed that separated the great hall from the gardens, the thick green threads hovering for a moment before slowly falling back in place.

Lake and Mia glanced at each other, exchanging a full conversation with only their eyes before they, too, rose from their places and left the hall.

The two guards stationed behind King Triton turned to follow before the king raised his hand to stop them. He may have had absolute power, but he wouldn’t abuse it. “Let them go. I’m afraid there’s not much more we can do.”

Benji swam in circles in the middle of the garden, hair falling in his face like an angry vortex, arms crossed over his shell-bra ensconced chest as he pouted. He paused as he watched Lake and Mia approach.

“What was that all about?” Lake asked.

“Oh, you know… the usual,” Benji replied, flicking a stone with his tail before raising his gaze back to his friends. “He still won’t let it go.”

“I’m not gonna keep running after you whenever you’re in a mood,” Mia said, leaning against one of the stone walls with red and purple leaves growing up along it. “Either deal with it, or figure out a solution.”

“Don’t you think that’s a little harsh, Mia? If the solution was easy, he’d have come up with it by now,” Lake pointed out as she played with her necklace.

A contemplative silence fell between the three of them like a mist. Benji truly _was_ getting tired by his father’s incessant refusal to respect his wishes. Now that he knew Mia was safe and alive, Benji didn’t know why he would continue to put up with his father and the duties imbibed in the powers that came with ruling. He wasn’t cut out for what it entailed. 

His mind drifted back up to the hut on the island, to the possibilities that abounded if only he didn’t have this blasted fish tail. He thought of the warmth of the furnace, the rich, salty flavor of broth, the smell of spices mixed with the sand and the sea, the sensation of dry air on his skin -- but most importantly, he thought of Victor, his flesh pressed against his own, breathing steady like the to and fro of the sea, voice low and sweet like nectar when he spoke to him, knowing there would be no one to overhear. Benji wanted to see him again. On purpose this time.

“Okay, I think I have an idea,” Benji said, breaking the silence.

“I’m guessing it involves going to see your cute human boy toy Victor,” Lake said with a wiggle of her eyebrows.

“Sorta…” Benji replied with a blush. “And he’s not my boy toy.”

“He _totally_ is,” Mia said, rolling her eyes. “But anyway. Tell us!”

“That word doesn’t mean what you think it means… But nevermind,” Benji said before he bit his lip. “So you know that one sea witch, Wendy? The one who lives down in the canyon?”

Lake and Mia’s eyes went wide. 

“ _No…_ You wouldn’t…” Mia muttered.

“Well, that sounds super dangerous and illegal. So, I’m in,” Lake said before turning to her girlfriend. “Looks like you’re outnumbered two to one.”

With a satisfied smirk, Benji slipped through the tunnel in the floor of the gardens, which also served as a secret exit from the palace. Lake followed behind him.

“You two go ahead. I’m not gonna be responsible for dragging your hollowed out corpses back here,” Mia called after them, rooted in place until they disappeared. “Ugh, fine.”

She sighed, diving through the tunnel after them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again, hope ya'll enjoyed this chapter. It was actually quite fun to write, and I have to thank Nathan ([ThatOneGaySlytherin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneGaySlytherin)) for providing me with the beautiful mental image of Benji in a shell bra. So I had to include it, obviously. Otherwise it would have been no fun. I will also say that I really enjoyed writing Lake and Mia's interactions, they really are an interestingly balanced couple, and I also am starting to like Lake a lot as a result. Anyway, as always I'm excited to hear what ya'll think about this. 1 comment/kudo = 1 Venji kiss!!!


	3. Silence is Golden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Benji, Mia and Lake visit a sea witch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “Uh, hi, Wendy. It’s good to meet you,” Benji said cautiously. “You’re definitely… not what I was expecting.”
> 
> Wendy rubbed her mittened hands together and put her hands over her mouth, blowing warm water into them as she sat beside them. She removed her hands from her mouth before she spoke.
> 
> “What were you expecting?” she asked, opening a small box of powder and sprinkling it into the cauldron before closing it and putting it on one of the shelves. “People have this idea that sea witches are these old, evil hags who look like frogs but we come in all shapes and sizes and ages. It’s not a nice stereotype.”
> 
> “I think what our friend here is _trying_ to say is that we weren’t expecting for you to be so… _cute_ ,” Lake said, wiggling her eyebrows. Mia chuckled beside her.

The tunnels leading from within the gardens of the palace snaked about within like the inside of a pile of rope jumbled together, orderless and knotted, and the only way one could make it all the way through without losing one’s way would be through knowing the route to the letter; otherwise, it would be easy to spend days trapped within until dying of starvation. Luckily, Benji was an escape artist, blessed and cursed to have learned the way around, and so he led the way with ease. There was not much light within, in order to discourage the use of this passage as well as to dull the senses of whoever may try to breach the walls of the palace. 

As Benji and Lake made their way farther and farther away from the gardens, the glowing eels began to appear, like swimming lightning bolts cutting through the water and wrapping around the dull, dark, dead coral that no longer produced light. 

“Wait up!” Mia called, kicking her tail faster and almost running head-first into Benji and Lake. 

“I thought you weren’t coming,” Lake teased, making space for her girlfriend beside her in the tunnel. “Took you long enough.”

“Well, I changed my mind. I figured you two would need an actual grownup around.”

“Thanks, mom,” Benji said with a grin. “Although, I may actually need your help because I’ve never actually been to see a sea witch before. Like, what’s the protocol?”

“What’s the sea witch visit protocol? Shell if I know,” Lake said. “Isn’t it just like, you show up, you ask her to cast a spell and poof. Your wish is granted?”

“Dammit, I didn’t bring any shells to offer her as payment,” Benji said, clicking his tongue.

“Don’t worry, I have some,” Mia said, pulling out a few from the inside of her own shell bra. 

“And if that’s not enough, you two can just pay her with your shell bras and Mia can _finally_ go braless,” Lake said, nudging Mia in the arm.

“It’s too cold,” Mia said with a chuckle. “Besides, I don’t wanna scare Benji with my pointy nipples.”

“Okay, now you’re just making fun of me,” Benji said, rolling his eyes. 

“Yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, hm?” Mia said.

Benji shoved her playfully with his shoulder and the three of them burst into a chorus of giggles as they finally reached the exit of the tunnel.

They came out on the seafloor, kicking up the sand with their tails and making it billow around them, tiny cirri that hovered just above the ground for a few seconds before falling back down. The canyon stretched up high above them like a pair of arms reaching through the water and almost to the heavens in prayer. Off in the distance, the wreckage of an old freighter climbed between the arms of the canyon, resting more on one side, its wooden structure collapsed in on itself yet empty at this point of valuables after the meryouth had looted it over the course of several years. Any treasures that may have been aboard had now vanished, leaving behind the exoskeleton alone, an emptied brown and green behemoth crab shell with barnacles and algae growing all over it as the sea slowly claimed it.

A few coral-covered rocks lay at the bottom of the canyon, and Lake, Mia and Benji weaved around them, passing the spider crabs and octopuses that crawled alongside them, climbing and hiding under the rocks as orange cuttlefish buried themselves and sea stars clung to the muted coral. In the dimness, the electric and glowing eels lit the way for them.

“If I were a sea witch, where would I live…?” Benji thought aloud, ducking among the coral-covered rocks and making a show of peeking under them as if Wendy may appear.

“Wait, so you’re telling me you don’t fully know where she lives?” Lake asked.

“Well, I have a rough idea. But also, didn’t she just move here recently? I didn’t get a chance to meet her and get a handle on her exact location,” Benji said. “I’ve been meaning to, but I was too busy with, you know,” he added, motioning to his back.

“You know what, that’s fair,” Lake said with a nod.

“I’ve heard that she’s pretty weird, though,” Mia said, scanning the canyon as they progressed closer to the wreckage. “She used to live somewhere in the Atlantic.”

“Aren’t… we in the Atlantic?” Benji asked, as he led them around the bend.

“No like, south. Way farther south of here, where it’s hot. The fish are way more colorful, too,” Mia said.

“Huh… interesting,” Benji said, before sighing. “I don’t see anything that looks like a witch’s lair around here.”

“She might be down by the wreck,” Lake said, taking Mia and Benji by the arm and pulling them along. “It has a very witchy vibe down there.”

“All right, lead the way,” Benji sighed.

They followed after Lake as they swam across the middle of the canyon toward the wreck, the small jumble of old, waterlogged wood growing to the size comparable to the palace’s great hall. When they searched around for some semblance of a presence, they saw nothing, heaving a sigh of defeat that mixed with the water and rose to the surface above.

“Okay, this isn’t adding up,” Lake said, crossing her arms over her breasts. “She didn’t move again over the past few days, right?”

“Mm… I don’t think so. Like, imagine her swimming through the ocean dragging her cauldron and all of her potions with her… That sounds like a pain in the tail,” Benji said, swimming toward the opposite side of the canyon as he thought.

When he raised his gaze, he saw what looked like a hole in the rock face behind the wreckage. 

“What is it?” Mia asked, swimming over to him and following his eyes.

“We should have thought to look _behind_ the wreck. Look over there,” he said, motioning for them to follow. 

“Oh, of _course_!” Mia said.

Benji paused before the entrance to the tunnel, fidgeting with his hands. He looked to Mia and Lake, chewing on his lip.

“C’mon, we didn’t swim all the way here for you to get a cold tail, right?” Lake urged.

“Can you two come with me, at least?” Benji asked.

“Yeah, we’ll be right behind you,” Mia reassured him, pushing him into the tunnel and sharing a gaze with Lake for a moment before going in after him.

The passage was short, and the tiny corridor separating the canyon from the inner part of the lair sat separated by a customary hanging seaweed curtain. Benji paused before it, not wanting to be rude. He knocked on the wall beside the curtain.

“Hello? Is this Wendy the sea witch’s lair?” he called.

“Why are you knocking?” Lake whispered behind him.

“It’s a little rude to just break into someone’s house,” Benji whispered back.

“She probably didn’t even hear you,” Mia replied, keeping her voice low, too. “Might as well go in.”

“Let me just try again,” Benji said, knocking again. “Hellooo?”

“We’ll be waiting here forever,” Lake angry-whispered.

“Just _go_!” Mia almost shouts, shoving them forward.

“I can hear you out there,” said a voice from behind the curtain of seaweed. “Come on in. It’s been a while since I had company.”

Benji exchanged glances with Lake and Mia before parting the green fronds and pressing ahead.

The room within was round in the typical mermish style, but at the center sat a giant cauldron, steaming and bubbling and vibrating over what looked like a pool of magma. Along the walls stood shelves stocked to the brim with potions of all colors and eyeballs and livers and other organs of various sizes from unidentified species in jars. Circling the cauldron at the center of the room were two long, green moray eels, twirling around each other before peeling apart and swimming away from one another. From the ceiling hung strings of colorful shells, which curled upward due to the convection current from below. The room smelled of cinder, fish and somehow… coconut?

Above the cauldron full of neon green liquid, stirring with what looked like a giant wooden stick, floated a figure who was covered head to tail in fabric to the point where the face was shielded from view; the only recognizable trait was the long blonde hair that tumbled down over the layers of cloth. Atop the figure’s head sat what looked like a tall wide-brimmed wool hat of green and red and blue and yellow that slouched from the weight of the water above it. The figure’s outermost layer looked like a long, rainbow sheep’s fleece that went all the way down to the top of the fin, finished off with mittens and a striped scarf around their neck, and overall, they looked like a giant floating marshmallow.

“Hi! I’m Wendy!” The figure said, turning to face them as she set the stirring stick over the top of the cauldron. She had a young face with blunt fringe and friendly brown eyes. “Make yourself at home. Here, have a seat, have a seat!”

She pulled over a few stools and set them beside the cauldron, motioning for them to sit. Hesitating for a moment, Benji scrunched his mouth to the side before doing as she asked, gesturing with his hand to Mia and Lake to do the same. 

“Uh, hi, Wendy. It’s good to meet you,” Benji said cautiously. “You’re definitely… not what I was expecting.”

Wendy rubbed her mittened hands together and put her hands over her mouth, blowing warm water into them as she sat beside them. She removed her hands from her mouth before she spoke.

“What were you expecting?” she asked, opening a small box of powder and sprinkling it into the cauldron before closing it and putting it on one of the shelves. “People have this idea that sea witches are these old, evil hags who look like frogs but we come in all shapes and sizes and ages. It’s not a nice stereotype.”

“I think what our friend here is _trying_ to say is that we weren’t expecting for you to be so… _cute_ ,” Lake said, wiggling her eyebrows. Mia chuckled beside her.

“Oh, Lake, _stop_ ,” Mia said, smacking her arm. “Flattery isn’t going to get you anywhere.”

“Actually, I am a _sucker_ for compliments. Keep ‘em coming,” Wendy said, tossing some of her long hair over her shoulder. “Anyway, I haven’t seen you all around before. How can I help? Oh, where are my manners... Would you like something to eat?”

Scrambling about, Wendy accidentally knocked over her stool as she rose and searched about some bowls for her guests. Benji fiddled with his hands as Mia placed a hand on his shoulder with a nod. 

“No, thank you. We just left a banquet,” Mia said, waving her hands in front of her. “We’re from the palace over on the other side of the canyon. This one here,” she pointed to Benji, “survived an attack by humans, so we’re celebrating. I’m Mia and this is my girlfriend Lake, our parents are both on the king’s council.”

“And I’m… Prince Benjamin, but call me Benji,” said Benji with a groan and a roll of his eyes.

“Ahh… Okay, I’m vaguely familiar,” Wendy said, swimming back over with three bowls of… something with purple tentacles and yellow eyeballs mixed into a blue liquid. “The fact that there’s still a monarchy is something I can’t get my tail around.”

“I know, right?” Benji replied, smacking his fist on his lap and almost overturning his bowl. “That’s actually why I’m here. I was wondering if you have any potions you could give me. To turn me… human.”

“Hmm… let me see…” Wendy said, getting up again and swimming over to one of her shelves and scanning it before moving to each of the rest of the shelves in turn. When she spotted what she was looking for, she gasped. “Oh! Here we go.”

Taking a vial of purple liquid from the shelf, she returned to the trio, brandishing it before them. Benji bit his lip to suppress his smile. He couldn’t believe this was happening. 

“First it might be good to know if there are any side effects or considerations we should know about,” Mia said, crossing her arms over her chest. 

“That’s no fun,” Lake said, pouting.

“Good questions, good questions. So… unfortunately, it makes me feel bad to say this because I like you guys, but… this potion requires an exchange,” Wendy said with a frown.

“What sort of… exchange? We have shells if that’s what you need,” Benji said, glancing to Mia as she pulled out some small shells to show her.

“Oh, I can’t take your shells. But by the way, holy _cowfish_ I love your bra, Benji. Where did you get that?” Wendy asks Benji.

“It’s uh… custom made, by Lake, actually,” Benji said, scratching the back of his head. 

“Really? Could you hook me up? I could really use one for when the water gets warmer… whenever that’ll be. Or I guess I can just wear it under all these layers,” Wendy said, holding Lake’s hand in both of her own.

“Sure…” Lake said, turning her head to the side to shoot Benji a wide-eyed look. “I have a lot of work already piled up but I guess I can do it at some point.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll still give you guys the potion, this is a separate thing entirely. But thanks,” Wendy reassured them. “Anyway, where were we before I completely derailed this conversation… right. The exchange.”

Benji felt his stomach drop through his tail and through the sand. “This sounds so ominous.”

“Unfortunately, it kinda is. I wish it wasn’t like this but for the potion to work properly, you have to give up your voice,” Wendy said, her own voice becoming low and dangerous. “It only works for a week, though, and the only way to become human permanently _and_ get your voice back is to make a human fall in love with you and give you true love’s kiss. Or else… you get turned into seafoam.”

It was as if the canyon around them had begun to collapse in on itself, crushing them all beneath its stony weight, the rumbling and roaring blocking out the sound of his heart hammering against his chest. He hadn’t expected to be risking his life to become human, to have legs and to be able to walk and dance and live on land in peace. What a steep price to pay for this… How could he and Victor fall in love in such a short period? They had developed a connection over the course of the few days they had spent together, but was that enough? He didn’t know.

Lake and Mia both snapped their heads to him, their eyes brimming with tears the same way his had begun to. 

“Benji, I can’t let you accept this,” Mia said, her voice slowly rising as a tear slipped down her cheek and leaving a track next to her eye like a scar behind as it joined the water around them. “I already lost you once. I don’t… I _can’t_ lose you again.”

“Mia’s right, Benji. It’s not worth your life,” Lake said, her tone unusually solemn. “I know I’m usually the first person to encourage you to do what you want but there has to be another way.”

“There _is_ no other way, that’s the thing,” Benji said, shaking his head. “If there was some other way to become human that didn’t involve all this risk… I’m sure that would have been what Wendy suggested, right?”

“Yeah, it’s also why I can’t accept payment for it,” Wendy explained, her eyebrows furrowing together. “It already requires such a steep toll that I can’t in good conscience let people pay me for it because I already feel bad for knowing how to make it and giving it away.”

“You could have just lied and said you didn’t have anything, though,” Mia said as-a-matter-of-factly. 

“Huh. Didn’t think of that,” Wendy admitted. “I’ll remember that for next time, I guess.”

“So I guess we’re done here,” Mia said, getting up to leave. “It’s settled. We’re not taking this. Let’s go.”

“I’m with you,” Lake replied, following suit.

“ _No_ ,” Benji snapped, remaining in his seat. “I want the potion.”

“Um _no,_ you _don’t_ , Benji. Let’s _go,”_ Mia said, grabbing him by the arm.

“We aren’t going to argue about this because I’ve already made up my mind,” Benji said, coaxing the tear that had drifted out of his eye into the surrounding water. 

“Don’t irritate me, Benji. I _will_ fight you if I have to,” Mia warned.

“Then _do it_ ,” Benji challenged her, rising from his seat. “We both know the only times you beat me at sparring were times you got lucky.”

“Okay… that’s enough, you two,” Lake said, standing between them. “I can’t believe I’m breaking up a fight _and_ agreeing with Benji at the same time, what’s wrong with me… Mia, Benji’s right. You have to let him make his own decisions.”

“ _Lake!_ Not you, too,” Mia said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. “I can’t believe the both of you. But whatever. I’m going.”

With that, Mia bolted like a shuttle through the hanging seaweed curtain before Lake shot Benji a glare.

“You’re making a mistake,” Lake said, before she turned and followed after her girlfriend.

Undeterred, Benji took the vial of the potion, turning it in his hands for a moment as he examined it. The liquid, upon closer inspection, seemed to almost sparkle the way the blanket of the Milky Way in the sky would on clear nights when he would come up to the surface of the sea, content with the fact that at that hour, the risk of being cut down would be low. 

He and Victor may not have known each other for long, but Benji trusted him. Trusted him the way he trusted that the sun would rise and set, the way he trusted that the waves would come in and out, the way that he trusted his body’s ability to intake oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide; he trusted him more than he had any right to trust anyone, and he trusted they could make it work. And so he slipped the vial into his bra.

“Thank you,” Benji said simply. “Goodbye.”

With a solemn nod, Wendy replied: “Good luck. And goodbye.”

Benji didn’t like the sound of that, but he gave her a final wave before darting through the corridor and out into the canyon, heart clamoring in his chest so quickly and violently it threatened to detach itself from his aorta entirely. 

“Mia! Lake! Wait up!” Benji calls out to the canyon, his voice echoing off the rock faces.

The two mermaids had already gotten far ahead of him and so Benji kicked his tail hard to propel himself forward, not paying much mind to the scraping he endured from crashing into rocks and coral. When he got closer, he all but tackled them as he grabbed them both by the shoulders. 

“I don’t want to hear anymore, Benji,” Mia said, shrugging him off, hard, as her eyes trickled water around her face and into the surroundings like a fountain. “Just… go do what you want. Leave me out of this.”

“Hey… I know it seems like a lot but I’ll be all right. You know I wouldn’t be doing this if I wasn’t confident it would work out,” Benji reassured her, hands on her shoulders. “I promise. Fin promise, even.”

“We don’t _know_ that. You’re being such an idiot right now,” Mia replied with a grimace. “You’re gambling with your life. But clearly, I can’t change your mind. All I can do is pray to the crab gods you don’t get turned into seafoam. Goodbye, Benji.”

“Hope your boy toy is worth it,” Lake hissed at him, before taking Mia by the hand and leading them both back through the tunnel to the palace, leaving Benji among the rocks and coral and eels and fish and crustaceans, but feeling more alone than he had ever felt before.

“Goodbye,” Benji said to their backs after they had gone, eyes downcast as he felt his own eyes begin to sting with the tears he wished he could put back into the ducts where they belonged.

He reached into his bra again, withdrawing the vial he had gotten from Wendy with a shaky hand, and turned it around, examining the little strip of paper on the back. It had a detailed list of instructions on how to use the potion, which Benji squinted to read. Thankfully, it was in Mermish. It even had a small biohazard symbol on it, along with a warning that said: “ _Do not ingest if you have the following conditions_ :” and the list included things like “heart disease”, “pregnancy” and a long list of other things that he was fairly certain didn’t afflict him. 

“Better just get it over with,” Benji said to himself as he wiped his face and swam up a bit toward the surface. 

Uncapping the vial, Benji brought it to his lips and gulped it down. Despite its pretty color, it tasted bitter and sour and burned on the way down as if he had swallowed a stone from the Mid Atlantic Ridge. Once he had emptied the vial, he slipped it back inside his bra and kicked his tail to propel him to the surface. As he did so, he began to sing.

 _I wanna be where the people are  
_ _I wanna see wanna see 'em dancing  
_ _Walking around on those  
_ _(What do you call 'em? Oh, feet)_

 _Flipping your fins you don't get to far  
_ _Legs are required for jumping, dancing  
_ _Strolling along down a  
_ _(What's that word again?)  
_ _Street_

 _Up where they walk, up where they run  
_ Up where they stay all day in the sun  
_Wandering free  
_Wish I could be part of that world

As soon as the last words left his lips, it was as if he had exhaled everything he could ever say, the last tremor of his voice forced out of his mouth in a purple cloud. It was becoming harder to breathe and his throat felt raw, as if someone had scooped out the inside and severed his vocal chords. The salty water made the sensation even worse. Soon, he had to hold his breath, as he lost his ability to transform the oxygen in the water into a form his body could use. His vision blurred as he lost his ability to see underwater, the salt of the sea making him need to close his eyes tightly. He was so close to the surface…

And it was at this point that the most excruciating part began. As Benji’s ability to move through the water became more and more difficult, his tail felt like it was being sawed apart, as if some giant marine animal had gotten its teeth around it and was biting down in an attempt to tear it off his body and make a meal of it. Benji was happy at least that he couldn’t look down to see what was happening because the sight of his tail splitting and mangling like the roots of a tree being transformed into human legs would have been burned into the back of his mind like a brand and he wouldn’t be able to get over it. 

His lungs felt like they would collapse as soon as broke the surface of the sea, taking in huge gulps of oxygen as he tread water with one arm, feeling sore, and used the other hand to push back his hair from his face and wipe the water from his eyes as he spit out the rest of the seawater. He blinked a few times as his vision adjusted and gazed off into the distance, seeing that the island was only a short swim away. 

The waves lapped gently today, and the sun hung high over a cloudless sky. Benji started to swim, wondering why he was so exhausted. It seemed that the amount of effort he put into paddling and kicking his new legs proved ineffectual, as each movement seemed to do its best to make Benji think he was stuck in place. He already missed his strong tail.

Eventually, he could see the rocky shore finally approaching him, his limbs burning with exertion and heavy, as if the sea itself wanted to take them from him. As soon as the water became shallow enough that his feet touched the sand and rocks without putting his head underwater, Benji sighed in relief.

Benji saw people out and about, and several of them stopped to stare at him, and Benji became acutely aware of their presence and their eyes on him, pairs of darts sticking straight into him. He darted behind one of the rocks, stumbling on his legs like a newborn foal and almost smashing his head into the jagged surface. 

_Wait a minute…_ Benji thought, peeking out from behind the rock at the people who had begun to gather on the beach, watching him. _They probably think I’m one of them now…_

Sliding out from behind the rock, Benji pushes himself up into a standing position slowly, bracing himself against the surface and using it for support as his legs wobbled beneath him, threatening to send him face-first into the sand. 

The crowd gasped, with some people looking away and others shielding the eyes of children who happened to be there.

Benji raised an eyebrow, wondering what they could have been reacting to, when he glanced down at himself. He was still wearing his rainbow shell bra, nothing odd about that. But as his gaze traveled lower, he saw that he now had a rainbow shell covering his groin to protect his modesty. The shell had two strings attached to it and tied into another shell behind him, he soon realized, after he examined himself. 

Curious, Benji pulled the shell away and peered down, earning another scandalized gasp from the crowd, along with shrieks of “What the hell is wrong with you?” Once he had realized no one was going to do anything to him, the threat of being hunted and killed abated completely, Benji did not feel particularly exposed, despite being literally almost entirely exposed to almost the entire population of the island.

He took a step forward, and the crowd murmured to each other, saying something he couldn’t quite hear. Suddenly, he felt the exhaustion from his journey beginning to catch up with him as his eyelids began to flutter closed.

“What’s going on here?” a voice said from behind the crowd, as a figure pushed through to the front. 

Those gathered fell silent as Victor came forward, eyebrows pressed together into a line as he blinked back tears and took a few hesitant steps across the sand, feeling eyes piercing his back. And as Benji lost consciousness, finally collapsing and almost slipping as his body went limp, Victor was there to break his fall, reaching his arms out and catching him before he fell to the ground.

Victor gazed down at Benji’s face, then glanced over his shoulder and remembered that there was an audience. He stopped the unconscious movement of his hand as he went to brush aside the hair that had fallen into Benji’s now peaceful face. Instead, he slipped off his jacket and wrapped Benji up before sliding one hand under Benji’s back and another under his knee and lifting him to his chest.

“Let me nurse this man back to health, and I’ll ask him about his whereabouts,” Victor announced, trying to keep his face as neutral as possible. 

The crowd nodded in assent and Victor left, holding Benji close as he trudged down the path to his hut. When he was away from the prying eyes of the other islanders, Victor allowed himself to smile. His gaze trailed down to the man who lay in his arms, breathing softly and oblivious to the world around him, and Victor couldn’t stop himself from burying his nose in the other man’s hair, inhaling the smell of sand and salt. 

With a contented sigh, Victor opened the door to his hut, and the memories of Benji curled up in his bed flooded back like a tidal wave, bringing with them the soft glow of hope he had barricaded away behind a stone wall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again, ya'll, hope you've been well. Thanks for tuning in for another installment of this story. It was definitely interesting to write this chapter lol. I also want to thank Nathan once again ([ThatOneGaySlytherin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatOneGaySlytherin)) for the inspiration for not only the mental image of Benji in a shell bra but for a whole shell bikini. It was real fun for me lol. Anyway, I'm curious to hear what you think once again and hope you keep enjoying the story! See you in the next update!


	4. On Land

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Victor and Benji play charades.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It reminded him of the Mermish story books he used to read when he was young. There was something about this book that drew his attention and he wasn’t sure if it was the colorful drawings or something else. He had become so engrossed that when he felt the warmth tickling his neck, he startled, jumping and tossing the book into the air and juggling it a few times before catching it. 
> 
> “I-I’m sorry, I… didn’t want to interrupt you,” Victor said, waving his hands in front of him, his face reddening. “You seemed really focused, is all.”
> 
> Benji covered his eyes with his hand and smiled, his lip turning up and exposing his pointed canines as he shook his head. When he removed his hand from his face, he held the book up and pointed to the words on the front cover, letting his finger drag over them as he raised an eyebrow.

The crackling of the furnace and the low, circuitous hum of breathing drifted into Benji’s ears as his eyes fluttered open, and he almost jumped out from beneath the sheets when he saw the figure sleeping before him, head propped up on his arm as if he had fallen into a slumber while acting as a sentinel over him in his unconscious state. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes, before taking note of their proximity to one another, gaze tracing the outline of Victor’s face in gentle strokes and landing on the dark spot on his cheek that he had to resist reaching out and touching for fear of jolting the other man awake. 

Benji chuckled quietly and glanced around the dim room lit only by the embers left in the furnace and the sharp, jagged white lines cutting in along the outside of the curtains drawn over the window so no one could see them sharing a bed and ask invasive questions of them. The room smelled of spice and fruit and char, and his lungs recalled the scent, his insides painted by it from when he had washed up ashore before. And the only difference between now and then, it seemed, was the presence of legs, which Benji was still getting used to. He wanted to rise and test them out properly, but the prospect of disturbing Victor made his heart fall into a staccato rhythm. With a soft sigh, he shoved his gnat-like doubts aside, their incessant buzzing floating beside his ears making him want to crush them with his open palm. 

Reaching out his hand as quietly as he could, Benji set it to rest atop Victor’s cheek, and a jolt of electricity zipped up his arm; he almost pulled away, but remained steady, because he knew the rapid movement would do more to jostle Victor than his touch alone. How peaceful, angelic and sweet he looked with his lips slightly parted as he breathed, oblivious, dead to the world. 

A moment later, Victor stirred, eyes shifting under the surface of his eyelids before they opened slowly, and his pupils stared through Benji as if he were stitching him up again. When Benji pulled his hand away, startled, Victor grabbed it, pulling it back to his cheek as his eyelids fluttered closed again.

“I couldn’t stop thinking about you, Benji,” Victor murmured, his voice low and gravelly as his face tinged pink.

Opening his mouth and moving his lips to respond, Benji furrowed his eyebrows and frowned, his visage also reddening when no sound exited his throat. He closed his mouth and sighed. _I couldn’t stop thinking about you, either, Victor,_ he wanted to say. But instead he simply continued to make the face he was making, and Victor raised an eyebrow.

“It’s good you came back, at least,” Victor continued, resting his hand on top of Benji’s and stroking his skin gently. “But… how did you manage to get rid of your tail? You didn’t… do something to yourself did you?”

This time Benji didn’t open his mouth, instead averting his gaze. Victor sat up, taking Benji’s hand into his own as he crossed his legs. He stared down at Benji as he lay in bed, biting his lip for a moment before he followed suit and sat up, too, gathering the sheets around his form and still keeping his pupils trained on everything but Victor, also avoiding the spot where their hands joined together, two links in a chain.

 _You don’t want to know what I did,_ Benji thought as he swallowed the lump in his throat, hissing as it burned, an acidic cocktail scratching at his insides.

“Benji… please say something,” Victor all but begged, before pressing his lips together into a line.

Shaking his head, Benji pointed to his throat, his eyes brimming with tears. _Do you understand now_?

Victor looked down before releasing his hold on Benji’s hand, unfurling himself from him before he rose. Benji could feel the tears roll down his cheek as he tried to stifle them, to force them back where they came from, to close the dam again because he was so fucking _stupid_ to think that anything could have come of this. How could he get _anything_ out of this if he couldn’t fucking _talk_? His hands turned into pale splotches, radiating across his vision until he blinked a few times and they came back into view, a bit clearer. And then Victor returned to the bed, sitting across from him again and offering him a little pad of paper and a ballpoint pen.

“Can you write?” he asked Benji gently, gaze like a hearth on him when he looked at Benji through his thick eyelashes.

Nodding, Benji took the offered tools, scrawling what he wanted to say quickly across the page and turning it around so Victor could read. His own words pulled him in and he scribbled at such a speed that he didn’t pause to read it over or proofread it, and when Victor took it from him, he raised an eyebrow, swallowing before he said:

“I can’t read this. This… isn’t in English.”

Dropping the pen in his lap, Benji buried his face in his hands, feeling the surge of water nudging through his tear ducts, burning along the way out. He hadn’t realized how much he relied on his own ability to speak and now that he had lost his voice entirely, it was as if he had become a child again, his independence stunted, and now all he wanted to do was rip his hair out because maybe _that_ way, he could be understood. But instead he cried into his hands, defeated, the loss of such an important part of himself reminding him of what a fool he had been to give up his tail.

“Hey, Benji… It’s all right…” Victor said, gently prying Benji’s hands away and wiping his tears away with his thumbs. With that action alone, Benji stilled instantly. He had no idea feeling the other man’s hands on him would be so… _soothing._ “I don’t know what happened to you and I hate that you can’t communicate properly because I... really miss hearing your voice, and it seems super frustrating, but… I’m sure we can figure something out.”

Benji let his eyelids fall closed as he nodded, his mind wandering to—

He patted at his chest, exhaling relief when he felt that his shell bra was still attached to his body, and he slipped his hand inside pulling out the now empty vial of the potion he had drank earlier. Victor raised an eyebrow before averting his gaze but glanced at Benji from the corner of his eye. He moved a bit closer to the other, tipping his head to the side as he tried to read the tiny curly letters on it and realized he couldn’t. It looked like it was written the same way as what Benji had attempted to write earlier and he let out a soft “Ohhhh” when he realized it was Mermish. Benji raised an eyebrow, turning his head to the side quickly and realizing that Victor was only a few finger’s-lengths away from him. His heart rattled in his chest when he read one of the warnings, Wendy’s words echoing in his mind. 

_How am I supposed to tell him I have 7 days… well, probably more like 6 days now, for him to fall in love with me?_ Benji thought, swallowing loudly. 

Raising his gaze to the bookshelves that lined the wall, Benji threw the covers off himself and slowly, cautiously, slid to the floor, the cool stone shocking his flesh and making him jump. Victor found his eyes wandering, his mouth going dry when he saw the way Benji’s muscles rippled under his skin—skin which was almost all entirely exposed. 

“P-perhaps I should uh... give you some clothes?” Victor said, his voice rising several octaves as he bolted upright and all but ran across the room in the opposite direction to Benji, throwing his wardrobe open and digging through it to find some clothes that could fit Benji’s slightly smaller but broader-shouldered frame. He could feel the pull toward Benji’s body by the invisible strings that willed it, and Victor used all of his willpower to prevent himself from giving into the temptation, instead keeping his gaze respectfully on the contents in his wardrobe, rather than Benji, who stared intently at the many books stacked on the shelves before him, tapping his chin as he made a fruitless attempt to read the words on the spines. He sighed.

“Here…” Victor said, clearing his throat as he approached Benji with some undergarments, a pair of stretchy dark trousers, and a knit dark sweater, which he thrust in the other’s direction while shielding his eyes with one hand. 

Taking the items into his own hands as if they were a gift, Benji stared down at them, eyebrow raised. He tapped Victor on the shoulder and held up the sweater, turning it over in his hands. Victor blinked.

 _What the fuck am I supposed to do with this thing…?_ Benji thought.

“Do you want me to help you get dressed?” he asked, chancing a glance at Benji’s face as the other nodded vigorously. “Uh… okay. Um… Do you want to do this first and then we do the rest after?”

Rolling his eyes, Benji nodded again and made a face as he thought: _Why are human clothes so complicated?_

“We should probably take your uh… shell bra thing off first,” Victor said, motioning to Benji’s chest. Benji’s lips fell open slightly as he reached behind himself and undid his bra, looking around for a moment before he set it down on the bed. Victor swallowed again, face reddening. “Now, I need you to raise your arms so I can put this on you.”

Squinting for a moment, Benji complied, lifting his arms as Victor stepped closed to him and slipped the sweater over his head with ease. Benji pursed his lips as he was enveloped by the soft, cozy material that hugged his body loosely. The part around his shoulders was snug but the material stretched and felt comfortable against his skin. It was a bit long, especially the sleeves, which covered his hands and flapped when he moved, but he liked it. Victor took one of the sleeves and went to roll it up, but Benji swatted him away.

“Okay… As you wish. Do you think you can handle the uh… lower bits?” Victor said, staring at the shell on Benji’s groin for a moment before looking away quickly.

Benji undid the little pair of shell panties he had on and tossed them aside carelessly before grabbing the pair of trousers and flipping it in all different directions, thinking: _How do these things work?_

Victor coughed loudly, turning around before saying: “The short ones go on first.”

 _Oh, that makes sense,_ Benji thought, following Victor’s instructions and slipping on the tight underwear before taking the trousers in his hands, his lower half finally covered. Victor breathed a sigh of relief. 

Still not entirely convinced on the correct course of action, Benji sat down on the edge of the bed and shoved both legs into one of the pant legs before standing up, feeling constricted and wondering how the shell he was supposed to walk in these things. In an attempt to step forward, his leg caught and he took a tumble onto the carpet with a loud _thud_. 

_Aw fuck no_ , Benji thought as the ground came up to meet him, smashing against his limbs.

All he could do was gasp as he fell, and upon hearing the noise, Victor whipped around, grimacing as he watched Benji rub his elbows, which had luckily broken his fall. 

“Oh my god, I’m _so_ sorry, I was trying to give you privacy and—nevermind. Here, let me help you…” Victor said, kneeling beside Benji as the other shook out his appendages, letting them flop around like wet leaves. “I’m gonna uhh… take your pants off and put them back on for you, if that’s okay.”

Rolling his eyes, Benji extended his legs and nodded, peeling the trousers off him as Victor helped him, their fingers brushing against each other as they did so, and the places where they touched each other left behind a pressure that almost felt like a kiss. Victor pressed his lips together as he made his best attempt to not stare at the extra bit of thigh that became exposed with Benji’s movement, as its pallor seemed to glow, pulling his attention against his will. 

Once they had removed Benji’s legs from the single pant leg together, Victor assisted Benji in sliding into them properly and once he did, Benji stood, fully-clothed for the first time in his life, examining himself and holding his arms out a bit from his body like an awkward statue, oppressed by the material that encased his body, unsure of where to proceed. He was als still getting accustomed to the sensation of being upright on the solid earth and standing on the new limbs he’d gained. 

“Did you want me to make you something to eat?” Victor asked, redirecting Benji’s attention to him. 

The rumble in Benji’s stomach was answer enough, and Victor got to work cooking some stew as Benji regained the use of his peripheral nervous system and shuffled back over to the bookshelf in his slightly-too-long-and-bunching-up-over-the-ankles trousers to stare haplessly at the words he couldn’t read. _Yet_. 

He chose one of the books at random, taking it and flipping through the pages, letting them fan out in front of him before he paused, examining the photographs of what looked like some sort of plants he didn’t recognize, including cone-shaped white and orange vegetation, green and purple leaves, what looked like cubes of dark red that reminded him of the inside of dead fish he’d seen on the seafloor or washed up on the beach or even the inside of a wound. There were more pictures showing the ingredients being cut up and stirred together along with some other things that Benji didn’t know by name but he concluded it must have been some sort of cookbook. 

_Boring,_ he thought, sliding it back into its place before he looked down a shelf and grabbed another book, this one thicker and with a hard, leather cover. He opened this one, completely oblivious to the pair of eyes resting on his back and trailing slowly downward and back up again. On the stove, a pot bubbled… and bubbled… until it spilled over the top with a sizzle and even that wasn’t enough to garner Victor’s attention.

Raising an eyebrow at the noise, Benji spun around, only to see Victor scrambling as he averted his gaze quickly, only to see the pot boiling over as he cursed under his breath. Benji couldn’t help but smile and even opened his mouth to laugh but, as he expected, no sound came out. 

With a sigh, he cast his eyes down again, running his fingers along the etching on the back of the book in his hand as he pored over the page, which had a drawing of a tree with some words underneath it. _Oh, that’s so pretty…_ he thought.

He flipped the page to where an image of a man sitting on a boat with a fishing pole stared back at him, and he raised an eyebrow. _And that’s pretty too… I wish I knew what it said…_

It reminded him of the Mermish story books he used to read when he was young. There was something about this book that drew his attention and he wasn’t sure if it was the colorful drawings or something else. He had become so engrossed that when he felt the warmth tickling his neck, he startled, jumping and tossing the book into the air and juggling it a few times before catching it. 

“I-I’m sorry, I… didn’t want to interrupt you,” Victor said, waving his hands in front of him, his face reddening. “You seemed really focused, is all.”

Benji covered his eyes with his hand and smiled, his lip turning up and exposing his pointed canines as he shook his head. When he removed his hand from his face, he held the book up and pointed to the words on the front cover, letting his finger drag over them as he raised an eyebrow.

“Oh, do you want me to read it out loud?” Victor asked, and Benji nodded. “‘The Old Man and the Sea’. A bit unusual that it has illustrations in it but they’re pretty nice, right?”

Another nod, and Benji held up a finger before he opened the book again and motioned for Victor to follow him as he sat down on the bed. He patted the spot beside him and then pointed to the first word on the first line of the page and held the book between them. Victor went to take the book into his own hands before Benji pulled it back, motioning from his own eyes to the book and then to Victor’s eyes face and back to the book, and then finally from the page to his ear before stopping and raising an eyebrow, hoping Victor understood what he was trying to convey.

“So what you’re trying to say is… you want me to read… so you can watch… and read along…?” Victor clarified, and then he let out a loud, “ _Ohhh_ ,” before he said: “That’s a great idea, actually. I can teach you to read and write so we can actually talk to each other. And maybe even a bit of sign language if you want?”

Benji grimaced but nodded nonetheless, before his eyes darted around the room as he stood up again. He wandered around the small space, his gaze landing on the small pocket watch laying on Victor’s desk; he picked it up and brought it to Victor, pointing at it and shaking his head. 

“No... clock… no… watch… no… time?” Victor said slowly, and Benji nodded. “Why not?”

Mouth falling open into a little “o”, Benji glanced around the room again before he noticed the sun outside the window and pointed at it. He held up six fingers and drew an arch in front of him before staring at Victor intently again. 

“Hold on, hold on… what are you pointing at?” Victor asked, moving closer to Benji on the bed as the other man took hold of his hand and pointed it at the sun. When Benji turned his head, he almost collided with Victor’s face, feeling the heat rising in his cheeks as he quickly turned away. “Sunsets.”

Holding his hand out in front of him and tilting it a bit, Benji then rolled his hand at the wrist. _You’re almost there… You’re so cute but you’re so stupid._

“Six days. No time. Six days. Until what?” Victor asked.

 _Fucking finally_ , Benji thought, rolling his eyes. He then took his finger, slid it across his neck and shut his eyes, letting his head loll to the side.

“Dead?”

Benji pointed to himself and repeated the motion. 

“ _You_ die? What? How?”

Sighing, Benji patted the bed and grabbed the vial he had discarded there, showing it to Victor. He mimed drinking it, then pointed to his legs. 

Victor’s face fell, and he swallowed. All Benji could do was nod.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Victor asked quietly, and Benji raised his gaze to meet his. 

Hesitating, Benji nodded slowly, biting his lip. He knew it would be so easy to just point to his lips and ask for a kiss, and Victor would probably honor the request because he knew he was a good person with a kind heart, whose first instinct at encountering suffering was to do something to lessen it, to heal it. Even if he was so deeply in the closet that he would need to be removed with a shovel, he would do it. But Benji knew he couldn’t ask that of him; he couldn’t force such an act of intimacy on him. And it was even worse that he knew Victor didn’t love him. 

_Yet,_ the hopeful little voice in his mind said, a wispy presence sat on his shoulder like a dove that had managed to shut away the nagging voice of despair behind a thick wooden blockade, but only for a moment. 

_And he never will_ , the other voice replied, and Benji could hear its wicked grin. He hated that he agreed with this one more.

Letting his face drop, Benji stared at his lap and fiddled with his hands in their cozy sleeves as he pressed his mouth into a tight line. Victor glanced at him, reaching out and then stopping halfway. 

“I’m guessing it’s something you don’t know how to show?” Victor asked softly. 

Benji shook his head. 

“Then why won’t you?” 

And it was in this moment that Benji realized he had never wanted to change the subject more in his life as his eyes zigzagged around the room and landed on the notepad he had scribbled on earlier; he picked up the leather-bound book again, opened it to the first page and pointed at a couple of letters and then to the notepad insistently, shoving the pen in Victor’s hand. He wanted Victor to remember how clever he could be.

 _Please just teach me so I can explain it to you,_ Benji wanted to scream. He was a quick study, after all. Raising his fingers as if he were holding a camera (that’s what they were called, right?), Benji wiggled his pointer fingers up and down, then tapped himself on the temple. He then motioned to the book and the notepad again.

“Picture… brain?” Victor said, eyebrow raised.

Squinting, Benji held up his hand with his thumb and pointer finger a few hair’s-lengths apart. _Close, but not quite_.

Victor was quiet for a moment, stroking his chin as he crossing his arms over his chest, staring at the ceiling as he moved his lips without saying any words aloud and drawing something in the air with his finger. 

Closing the book with a soundless groan, Benji took the pad and began to write, even though he didn’t know what it said, and Victor paused his thinking to watch. Benji wrote: “ _He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish...”_

After a few minutes, he had written down the entirety of the first page of the book; he opened it up, showed it to Victor, and compared his own handiwork, hoping Victor would finally get it through that beautiful thick skull of his.

“Oh. You have a photographic memory?” Victor finally said. Benji all but through his arms into the air as he nodded with a vigor so intense it almost caused the room to quake. “That makes things easier, then.”

Victor rose, walking over to where he had set the pot of stew to cook, stirring it and blowing on it before tasting a bit. He dipped the spoon into the sauce, blew on it gently, and cradled it over his open palm before he offered some to Benji. “Do you want to taste it?”

Benji smiled softly and raised an eyebrow as he parted his lips. Victor tipped the spoon into his mouth, watching as Benji contemplated the flavor before he gave Victor a thumb’s up, and the other man immediately relaxed, his body loosening up when he realized that Benji actually enjoyed his cooking. And why wouldn’t he? After all, Victor was competent enough to own his own restaurant, but there was something about receiving positive feedback from Benji that made his chest warm against his will, the temperature of his body growing and finding itself on his cheeks as he turned away to plate their dinner.

Humming, Victor passed one of the portions to Benji before he sat down beside him to eat, watching as the other shoveled food into his mouth, oblivious to Victor’s gaze on him, raking over his form in the same way the water used to. 

“Hold on,” Victor mumbled, as he took a napkin and gently dabbed at Benji’s face, and all Benji could do was press his lips together into a line as he suppressed a smile again and glanced at Victor from the corner of his eye, his face reddening all the while. 

When they finished their meal, they sat back down again, and Benji opened the leather-bound book and the notebook once again, setting it on Victor’s lap, and Victor wrote out the letters for Benji, capital and lowercase, as he pronounced each of them in turn; he then wrote out some words and read them, ensuring he included any special forms of pronunciation. 

Benji copied everything down eagerly before they took a break for the night, until the following day the sun receded again, casting an inky darkness across everything it no longer touched, and Victor lit some candles so they could continue. The flames flickered and vibrated like little fireflies suspended in space, leaving a warm glow on all they touched. Benji watched one of them for a moment, his body unconsciously drawn closer to Victor as he shifted over on the bed, their hips touching gently like whispers in the night, the blackness serving as a veil between their blushing faces 

“You’re picking this up really quickly,” Victor said, as he watched Benji scrawl something across the page as he covered his mouth to yawn before he held his work up for Victor to read, lips adorned with one of the many small smiles induced by Benji’s many successes in learning how to read and write. “‘I’m tired. When can we sleep?’,” Victor read aloud, biting his lip to stop a grin before he said: “You forgot an apostrophe, a full stop, an h and a question mark but not bad. Although it’s my own fault for not showing you how to use them… But yes, we can sleep now, I didn’t realize it was so late...”

Victor corrected Benji’s writing before he showed it to him and explained the corrections. Benji took the paper, tapped the pen on his chin, and wrote: “ _Thank you for teaching me how to reed and write, I feel so much less alon”._

“It’s not a problem at all, I mean… I enjoyed spending time with you,” Victor said, scratching the back of his head before he took the paper and made a few more corrections, and then returned it to Benji. “Plus you’re actually really smart so it was, uh... a pleasure for me to have you as my student,” he said with a chuckle.

“ _I appreciate you saying that,”_ Benji wrote, his stare fixating on the floor for a moment before he adds: “ _Maybe I should finally explain. I think I’ve got enough of a hang of this thing now.”_

“All right,” Victor said gently, resting a hand unconsciously on Benji’s lower back as he scribbled frantically, and despite his learning of a foreign tongue, his penmanship still managed to impress Victor. 

Benji filled Victor in on what went on when he was under the surface of the sea, leaving out, of course, that seeing Victor again had been his major motivator for his course of actions and that the only way to resolve things was for him to receive true love’s kiss. He recounted his reconnaissance with Mia and Lake, attending the banquet, and how the trio had sought Wendy's help in order for Benji to get his hands on the potion that he had almost regretted drinking. And as soon as that thought crossed his mind, he raised his face to the side where he saw Victor, his face illuminated on one side by the candle and looking as if he were emerging from a cave, and his breath hitched in his throat as he cursed himself for ever having any regrets at all. 

He pressed his lips together and cleared his throat softly before he turned his page to Victor and watched expectantly as the other’s eyes darted across it. His jaw clenched in the dimness as he moved farther along, until Benji could see the glistening little crystals at the base of his eyelashes threatening to cascade down his cheeks before he blinked.

“Ah, I see,” Victor finally said, his voice quiet. “It’s sweet that you wanted to come see me again but I hate that you put yourself through what sounds like a really… painful ordeal for me. And you still haven’t told me what you know about getting your voice back… and keeping you from… _dying_.” Victor’s voice cracked as he turned away when he said that final word.

“ _I didn’t know what else to do,_ ” Benji wrote, sighing, feeling close to tears himself, the prickling sensation almost crashing over him and forcing out the wave of water from within him. 

On instinct, Benji reached out his hand and rested it on Victor’s cheek, gently urging his gaze back to Benji. When Victor looked at him, and when he saw himself like two tiny sprites reflected back in those warm, dark eyes, the smoldering intensity wanting nothing but to unleash itself, it was Benji’s turn to turn away, but Victor stopped him with his palm on his cheek, the spot where their skin joined almost burning, their faces close enough that they breathed each other’s air once more.

“Benji… I don’t want you to die,” Victor whispered against Benji’s lips, and Benji all but melted, his brain screaming at Victor to just _kiss him alrea_ —

_Knock, knock, knock._

Victor all but fell off the bed with a yelp as he stood up, then brushed himself off and ran to the door to open it.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Vic, man, how are you? It’s been a while since I’ve seen you down at Brasstown,” said a gangling man with wind-swept hair and a wide mouth whose large, sympathetic eyes seemed to grab one by the heart and refuse to let go. He looked like someone who didn’t like to sit down for more than a few minutes.

“Felix, I… wasn’t expecting you here,” Victor said with a forced laugh as he clapped the other man on the shoulder. “Here, come in,” he said, pulling him inside and shutting the door behind him.

“Hi, uh, I haven’t seen you before,” Felix said, waving to Benji, who returned the gesture with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, wait. Silly me, you must be the guy who washed up on the beach the other day. I hope you’re acclimating well. This guy,” Felix said, pointing at Victor, “is one hell of a host, isn’t he?”

Glancing to Victor and then back to Felix with a small smile, Benji nodded. His eyes caught sight of the papers they had been writing on, and Benji quickly shoved them under the covers as Victor took the chair at his desk and offered it to Felix to sit down. 

“I’m just doing what anyone else would do for someone who… doesn’t remember where he came from,” Victor said, sitting back on the bed beside Benji. “His name is Benji, by the way.”

“It’s good to finally meet you, Benji,” Felix said.

“ _And you as well,_ ” Benji wrote, holding up the paper to Felix, who nodded. 

“Oh, uh, so I guess you can’t… speak,” Felix said as he stroked his chin. “Interesting. But it’s _totally_ okay. Everyone communicates differently, after all. Huh… I wonder what would happen if I just stopped talking and instead started writing… That would be kinda cool wouldn’t it...”

“ _It’s not as cool as it seems,_ ” Benji wrote back. 

“Fair, fair,” Felix said, tilting his head to the side as he looked around, and then back to the two men sitting on the bed. “So uh… where do you sleep, Benji?”

 _Fuck…_ Benji thought as he gulped and turned to Victor, who blinked several times. 

“I sleep on the floor, of course, and Benji sleeps in the bed,” Victor said, almost forgetting to breathe until the end of the sentence. 

“Don’t worry, I’m not the secret police or anything. I’m just curious,” Felix reassures them, hands outstretched before him.

“You know, it’s getting kinda late and Benji and I were about to go to sleep,” Victor said. “Did you uh… need something?”

“Yes, yes, _so_ sorry about that. Right. So… I guess I just wanted to check in, see how my best friend’s doing, is all. Because uh… people have been… talking. About you. And you, too, Benji. You know how it is when everyone knows each other. Or maybe you don’t, Benji, I don’t know if where you’re from is anything like it is here. Do you remember anything yet, by the way?” 

Benji swallowing, throat burning, and his eyes darted to Victor before he shook his head. Victor tensed, a block of iron beside him as he buried his face in his hands. Pressing his lips together into a line, Benji hesitated before he rested a hand on Victor’s back.

“What are they saying?” Victor muttered.

“They were worried if you were still alive, is all,” Felix said as he stared up at the ceiling, his fingers interlaced behind his head. Benji could feel Victor relax under his touch. “But I feel like there’s something going on here. Between you two. I don’t know why, but... “

“ _Nothing’s_ going on here,” Victor said quickly, shrugging off Benji’s hand. Benji sat there for a moment before pulling his hand back to his lap, a pang striking him in the chest.

“Whoa, relax. If there _was_ I would be happy for you, man. You know that,” Felix replied as he sat up and leaned forward. “And if I’m being honest, it hurts my feelings a little bit that you think I would be upset about that. I’m not like these old island folks who are scared of change. You can be honest with me, too, you know.”

Victor wrung his hands. “That’s… actually good to know, Felix. Thank you.”

“While we’re on the subject…” Felix said, scooting closer as he glanced between Victor and Benji, “Victor, you remember that guy who kept coming around to Brasstown? The tall one? Who always orders mimosas and threatens to beat up anyone who said anything about it being gay?”

“Andrew, was it?” 

“Yeah. Well _someone_ is going on a date with him tomorrow night,” Felix said as he blew on his nails and buffed them on the front of his shirt. 

“O-oh,” was all Victor could say, before he added quickly, “Congrats! I just… I guess I didn’t know you were… into guys, is all.”

With an inaudible chuckle, Benji covered his face in his hands as he watched Victor’s face through a crack in his fingers. Felix shrugged.

“I guess it was a little bit of a shocker at first,” Felix said, tapping his boot-clad foot on the stone floor. “But what can you do? Life’s too short to feel bad about that sort of thing.”

“Hmm… you’re probably right,” Victor said absently, the ghost of a smile planted on his lips visible only to Benji in the flickering light. “I’m… really happy for you, Felix.”

Watching him expectantly for a moment, Felix nodded. “Thanks, man. But anyway, uh… Glad you’re doing well. I hope you can come back to Brasstown soon because it’s weird without you around. You’re the _only_ one who doesn’t tell me to shut up when I talk about the mouse that lives in my wall. I think we’re finally becoming friends. Or maybe he’s just easily persuaded by food…”

“Goodnight, Felix,” Victor said with a roll of his eyes as Felix rose to leave. “I’ll see you… at some point. But thanks for dropping by.”

“It was good seeing you… And good meeting you, Benji,” Felix said, eyes slowly floating between them as he raised his hand in farewell. He stayed like that for a moment as Victor opened the door for him.

“Night, you two. Have fun,” Felix said with a wink, and then he was off. 

As Victor shut the door and locked it for the night, he exhaled relief before he turned to Benji, who covered his mouth as he yawned again. 

“I’m sorry about all that,” Victor said, sitting back down beside Benji, this time so that their thighs pressed against each other. “I… wasn’t expecting for that to happen…”

“ _It’s ok. It must have been a surprise,”_ Benji wrote.

“Yeah, it was. But… I don’t want you to think I’m pushing you away. When he was prying, I couldn’t help but feel a bit scrutinized.”

Benji nodded. 

“ _I understand,”_ he wrote.

A silent fog descended upon them for a moment, and in the candlelight, they simply stared at each other—that is, until Victor cleared his throat and rose from his spot on the bed, blowing out each of the candles one by one. Benji set aside the books he had buried in the bed atop the night table before slipping under the covers. Victor, meanwhile, stripped his shirt off and folded it before resting it over the back of his chair by the light of the furnace.

When he shuffled over and slid into bed beside Benji, he faced the wall, leaving space, a deep trench, a void, between them and keeping his hands to himself as he closed his eyes. For a moment, they lay like that, the familiar crackling of the fire in the furnace mixing with the salty dance of the sea outside the hut, reminding them that they were never truly alone.

Patting the mattress behind him, Benji sidled backward until his shoulder blades pressed flush against Victor’s curled up arms. He took Victor’s arm in his hand and draped it over his own middle, allowing the other man to engulf him and shield him from the terrors of the night as he shivered when Victor’s breath hit the back of his neck. 

This time, Victor didn’t pull away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi again, thank you all so much for waiting patiently for another installment of this story. This is a longer and more action-orientated part but I hope ya'll will continue to enjoy it. I was out of commission for a bit due to NaNoWriMo but I'm hoping to finish this story soon. And I hope you'll also take the time to read my completed NaNo story (Dead Men Feed the Fish) if you haven't already. Anyway, thank you once again for reading and supporting, and I hope you continue to read and be enthralled by this story, because it's definitely very interesting and engrossing for me to write. See you in the final installment! And remember 1 comment = 1 Venji kiss!

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all, hope you enjoyed this. It's first in a little series I just started and is ofc inspired by The Little Mermaid (hence the titles of the work and the chapter) as well as general mermaid mythology and such. Hope you'll check in for the other parts because it was fun to write, truthfully. The next chapter will be some more under the sea things so hope ya'll enjoy that. See you in the next installment!


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